Mamata Banerjee’s minorityism music to BJP’s ears

On Sunday, BJP president Amit Shah alleged, at a rally in Kolkata, that money from the Saradha scam had been funneled by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) to alleged bomb-makers in the Burdwan district. This claim might be far-fetched. However, Shah’s presence in Kolkata 18 months before the state goes to polls, shows the BJP’s eagerness to expand into territory where it has been a marginal force so far. Shah and his party have reasons to be upbeat: between the assembly polls of 2011 and this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s vote share quadrupled to 17%. Thus, Shah’s claim of liberating Bengal of TMC rule in the near-future.

Electoral promises are fine, but not at the cost of communal harmony. Most of the accused in the Burdwan bomb case are Muslims, and it is clear that the BJP is trying to create a Hindu-Muslim divide in Bengal. It believes that its Lok Sabha success was the result of a consolidation of Hindu votes, overcoming caste divisions, in north India. If this can be repeated across the country, it believes, then it would become invincible. This assumption will be severely tested: religion is only one factor that goes into voting choices. But while this experiment is played out, it could extract a heavy cost in human and social terms.

Bengal is no stranger to communal politics, which began in the early 1930s and simmered till the late 1970s, when the Left came to power. Despite their many shortcomings, the comrades were stoutly secular and banished systemic communalism from political discourse for over 30 years. It took the TMC, and its aggressive pro-minority posturing to raise the ghost of the Hindu Mahasabha once again. If the trend continues, the TMC should beware: the main beneficiaries of this politics will be the Mahasabha’s descendant, the BJP.

This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Economic Times.